The How About Project Part 18 (of 26)

I love films where characters ride in trains. There's something kind of romantic about them. It may have something to do with me being infected with the travel bug a decade ago, but I think it has everything to do with the motion-vistas you get through large windows, the calming effect of the rails, and the introversion and inclination to tell stories. People always look calm and cool on trains (except for maybe Bruce Willis in Unbreakable). And there always seems to be something secretive going on. Trains make everyone interesting and everything mysterious.

Here are a few great pre-80s train films you may want to revisit or see for the first time:

3: Murder On the Orient Exress (1974)
2: Strangers On a Train (1951)
1: Night Train to Munich (1940)

From the Producer of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

"My children, personally, whenever they want to watch a horror movie, I’m delighted, but I have two girls, so they don’t like the genre as much as I do. But, for example, we play very graphic horror video games together, so I am not the president of the parenting board. As far as I’m concerned, horror movies are great; monsters are an integral part of childhood..."

- Guillermo del Toro, on being asked whether or not children should be allowed to watch horror films

The How About Project Parts 16 & 17 (of 26)

Animation.

We all love Pixar. Everything they do is gold (except maybe the two Cars films). They've also raised the bar, pushing other studios to at least raise their own standards with regards to animated output. While Disney isn't as big and successful as they were a couple decades ago, they still score above average. And boy, have there ever been some fantastic animated foreign films in the last few years alone -- L'illusioniste and Waltz With Bashir to name a couple. I could go on and on.

But for now, here's my top 3 pre-80s animated Disney films:

3: Dumbo (1941)
2: Pinocchio (1940)
1: The Rescuers (1977)

And for the heck of it, here are 3 great pre-80s non-Disney animated films you may want to check out:

3: Watership Down (1978)
2: Yellow Submarine (1968)
1: Fantastic Planet (1973)